Winter...what can you do?

After a few days of delicious sunshine we are back to the typical weather of a Cape Town winter. Fingertips are cold, layers are on and fires lit.

My garden has been drenched in the torrential rain that has come down since early morning before the sparrows were up. There are puddles everywhere and the taller veggies, like broad beans, have bowed their heads to carry the weight of water droplets.

It makes it hard to write about veggie gardening in winter let alone to get into the veggie garden to do anything productive there. So I will be philosophical about it and say that when winter is wet and cold it means we must hibernate, stay warm, plan and rest.



There are some things that can be done on fine days when the sun is out and the fingertips aren't cold. Here in the Western Cape we do not get frost and snow does not reach us on the Cape Flats which means that we can still plants quite a few crops: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, broad beans, swiss chard, peas, lettuce, herbs, kale, beets and carrots.

They grow quite slowly and its best to get them in the ground before the true cold of June and July hit. A second planting of these same veggies can be planted in early August which will mean harvesting just in time to get your spring veggies in.

We loose a chunk of our growing space in the winter due to shadows from the house but we have 7 raised beds that still receive enough sun. The other beds are left fallow for this time, then composted in early spring an planted up.


I have a plan for these beds after seeing the compost heaps at Soil 4 Life the other day and I think it will work. I want to use some old vertical climbing frames that Superman made back in 2009 and turn them into something like this.

While the shade is still over these areas I am going to fill them with composting materials and then in September/October I want to plant creeping veg directly into them to see if I can capitalise on vertical growing space. So winter is a time for planning and dreaming of crops to come.

Living Seeds has just made a print catalogue of their seeds and gardening products which is a good excuse to sit down with a steaming cuppa of your favourite brew and browse through their product range and make your planned purchases.

I should be knitting, cooking warm foods, making soap, reading homesteading type books and increasing my skills, but right now its a fire, cup of tea and blogging.

How is your winter garden coming along?